What the hell is "expedition cruising" and what's the difference?

[El Pinguino]

'expedition cruising' is just a little bit mutually exclusive... you are either 'cruising' or on an 'expedition'.. you can not do both at once....

Sailing in a cold or remote area does not an expedition make........

[Benz]

To me, "Expedition" has a different end than just sailing for it's own sake. "An expedition to discover X" Or "An expedition to study this or that area or phenomenon."

Cruising in high latitudes or remote places is simply that. An expedition, though, should have a separate end in view. Tilman wasn't ever cruising: he was on peak-bagging expeditions. The sailing was just part of the approach.

If we begin to use the word for another purpose, it will lose its meaning, and all real expeditions will suffer from a dilution of grandeur.

[Tillsbury]

Anything in the YouTube videos with Skip Novak is a pretty good example of expedition cruising

[Jim Cate]

Expedition cruising??? My opinion: what folks call a cruise to some unusual destination when they want publicity and attention.

As contrasted with El Ping, who regularly just cruises in Patagonian waters without labeling his ventures with grandiose terms... and I'm sure there are many others of similar ilk.

I also think one will find "expedition" labels applied before departure, again hinting at publicity

Just my kinda cynical outlook on some forms of cruising.

Jim

[Pelagic]

Commercially we marketed 3 types of cruises for a small 28 passenger cruise ship I ran.

1 Pleasure Cruise: Comfortable, reliable and repeatable with logistics in favor of convenience for all.

2 Adventure Cruise: More exposed to weather and remote locations that had no tourist infrastructure or convenient logistics. Sometimes the high chance of heavy weather on a seasonal positioning trip was part of the attraction.

3 Expedition Cruise: As others have said, was for a specific exploratory and learning experience.
Specialists like Naturalists, Marine Biologists or Wreck Historians were the ones who organized a like minded group to charter us for a considerable time to explore their intrests .
It had all the components of an Adventure Cruise, but with a specific purpose and a higher degree of logistical difficulty.

I liked them the best!

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by mglonnro

Can it be "expedition" also if you already live there?

Baltic is not counted as expedition 10nm north from my whereabouts..

Teddy

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by mglonnro

Can it be "expedition" also if you already live there?

Only if you have Alzheimer's.
[emoji4]

[CatNewBee]

Expedition cruising is:

- you sail there not for joy, but for work / on purpose to do something there.
- you do expedite cruising in contrast to relaxed laid back life style.

[Bruce K]

People on "expeditions" usually want to be noticed by others; My favourite kind of cruisers just want to get on with it, and "slip below the radar"

[hpeer]

Well, the OP was asking something a bit different I think. As in “What is an Expedition Boat” as opposed to a “Blue Water Boat.” But since we can’t agree on Blue Water I give up on Expedition.

To ME blue water means something like: No outside assistance available within 12 hours.
Expedition means something like: Able to sustain crew in remote areas for prolonged times, particularly but not necessarily in high latitudes. Hull and systems are sufficiently robust and redundant to provide high chance of survival.

But those are just my SWAGS at making a phrase meaningful to me.

[CatNewBee]

An expedition boat has far more requirements depending on the job to be done, you need to carry expedition equipment (tools, scientific gear, crucifixes, glass pearls, food, water, energy), the crew to operate the vessel and the passengers who do the expedition work (scientist, priests, conqueror, soldiers).

Expeditions are usually sponsored by some one on shore who is interested on the outcome (universities, green blob, church, kingdoms to get colonies, gold, spices, new markets...).

Expedition is something like, get an idea, get sponsors, prepare, do the work, come back and celebrate or die trying.

Blue-water sailing is just enjoy yourself and live where you want to in remote places, no purpose for somebody outside, usually no sponsors, no tasks to be done there.

[fschaefer4]

@Tillsbury- I've watched a lot of Skip Novak. He's probably the one who got me interested in this.

@Jim Cate- I'll agree with your cynical view. I'll take it one step further. There's probably lot of branding using "expedition" so people can feel cool. You see it all the time with people stuck in traffic and driving their perfectly clean lifted 4x4 trucks to their office job. But hey, they look cool and they COULD go off road if they wanted to. : /

Since I don't really care about publicity and I probably won't be using a sailboat for actual work or research, I'm just gonna call it adventure cruising. Strong hull, set up for heavy weather, radical self sufficiency and very far away from any kind of support.

Not sure why, but damn that sounds gratifying.

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by fschaefer4

So here I am with this ideal of cruising. I'm sure my ideal will be changed dramatically when I actually start. I've always imagined far off places like Galapagos, NW Passage, Aukland Islands, Antarctica, etc.

Yes, I know, I have a LOT to learn and I'm probably naive.

For the record, I won't be jumping on a boat and heading to far off places. This will be something I have to build up to- working on other more experienced people's boats and taking classes.

Besides a boat se up for heavy weather, a hull that is stronger than the average fiberglass boat and self sufficiency needed to be in far off, unsupported places, what's the difference between regular cruising and "expedition" cruising?

Depends on how you define "regular cruising", doesn't it? Tootling on 12 knot days between Guadeloupe and Antigua in a clapped-out 1980s production boat is cruising, too, after all.

Some differentiators come to mind:

1) Independence from the shore. Having wind and solar and a battery bank big enough to mean you can spend as much time as you wish on anchor and "commute" to shore via a well-found tender suggests a "go-anywhere" capacity is at least possible. Watermakers and spare fuel tankage/daytank also falls under this heading.

2) Collision bulkheads/extra flotation/skegs/beefy bilge pumps/reinforcements. Having these argues that clipping a container will not necessarily lead to an abandonment of the ship.
3) Safety gear. Tethers, jacklines, full foulies, harnesses, sea boots, AIS tags, EPIRBs, sat phones, liferafts, padeyes and multiple handholds make the boat safer for the crew in heavy weather.
4) Spares and tools and better than average mechanical skills: Filters, belts, injectors, spare pump, spare starter and so on, plus a decent set of tools with which to install them, suggests again that you are prepared to go places the local mechanics are not.
5) Stowage for all this that is logically (less air, more lockers) and safely (sole hatch lockdowns) set up.
6) Education: All crew are capable of safe and seamanlike watch-standing and have both done deliveries on other boats and have taken educational courses to consolidate and improve their seamanship skills, such as RYA courses.


Haven't even got to the sail inventory, but I'm sure you get the point.

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by Bruce K

People on "expeditions" usually want to be noticed by others; My favourite kind of cruisers just want to get on with it, and "slip below the radar"

But they themselves almost invariably have radar, to see the poorly charted hazards to navigation!

[Maka]

Expedition Cruising is any night spent not tied to a dock with water and power.


By "Dog house", do you mean hard dodger ?